Orange Build

Orange Build

Connecting with the Profession

Orange Build is a design build studio with the intention of creating an exceptional, multiscaled, learning experience for students, and a stronger academic-professional connection with local architects and The Design School. It is a studio where students, professors and professionals in the industry collaborate on a project and see it through to its construction. This semester, us students worked together to develop working construction drawings and multiple scale models for an outdoor classroom in preparation for its construction on ASU’s Polytechnic Campus. Additionally, we worked together in groups to develop designs for a second outdoor classroom to be built in ASU’s Downtown Campus during the following school year.

Orange Build was created to provide a real learning experience that reflects the reality of the industry for graduate and undergraduate students at The Design School. We learned by observing and documenting the work that professionals did on site and behind the scenes. The professionals involved throughout the process walked us through every step and aspect of the project which we then documented each week for reflection. We learned by building scale models together. By building the models in The Design School woodshop, we learned the importance of the fabrication process, and while drawings may illustrate and define a project, constructing a model actualizes a space and allows one to comprehend the complexities of a building more fully. As we developed the project from a flat abstraction to real materialized space, the structures potential complications revealed themselves, which was a chance to learn and adapt the design. We learned about project constraints by conducting case studies of the Serpentine Pavilions throughout the years and by developing our own schematic designs. We also attended countless meetings with the entire Orange Build team, comprised of designers, builders, engineers, and other professionals in the field. Many students had the opportunity to interview these professionals and learn about the many obstacles and nuances that a project goes through from start to finish.

Professors Catherine Spellman and Felipe Mesa made the timely decision to shift the focus of the studio and engage in projects that consider the reality of post-pandemic architecture. “With the risk of coronavirus transmission being lower outdoors than inside, some professors are finding ASU’s beautiful outdoor spaces a great option.” This studio prompted the discussion of architecture’s ability to be adaptable and resilient in order to respond successfully to changes in the world. As designers of urban spaces, we must be mindful of the fact that architecture is the stage for social life, and it must be responsive to a world changing at a fast pace.